I have a top tier brew stand and I want to mount the March Pump and my Plate Chiller on the stand. My question is do I put the pump above the chiller or bellow it.

One other question I have is if mounting the pump with the in and outlets are vertical do you want to inlet pointing to the ground or is it better to have it pointing up? On a lot of systems I see it pointing down but wouldn't it be better if it was pointing up so when you send the wort to it the wort doesnt have to go under the pump and then back up the hose to the pump??

BEER, a mixture of malted grains, water, hops and yeast, that is transformed through the course of fermentation that transcends the simplicity of those basic ingredients, fundamentally into the drink of life. turbo_ale

Assuming you have a magnetic pump (march) like most of us do. You want the inlet of your pump pointing down so the flow of liquid comes up through the impeller/housing removing all the air. If you go from the top down more chance of trapping air and the pump not priming.

As for your chiller I would think you would want the chiller level with the pump or below. The higher the pump has to move liquid the less GPMs you will get.

rplace wrote:As for your chiller I would think you would want the chiller level with the pump or below. The higher the pump has to move liquid the less GPMs you will get.

If you put the chiller below the pump isn't there going to be the propensity for the air in the chiller to come back up into the pump? I would have thought just the opposite - to put the chiller slightly higher than the pump to allow the air a natural path of escape.

rplace wrote:As for your chiller I would think you would want the chiller level with the pump or below. The higher the pump has to move liquid the less GPMs you will get.

If you put the chiller below the pump isn't there going to be the propensity for the air in the chiller to come back up into the pump? I would have thought just the opposite - to put the chiller slightly higher than the pump to allow the air a natural path of escape.

You might be right. I guess I was thinking of how I use my system with plate chiller I recirculate through pump and various part but not the chiller for 20 minutes. When I finally do hook it up the chiller my pump/hoses have liquid in them and they flow right into the chiller pushing out air. I just try to minimize the distance the pump has to move liquid "UP". I think in pump terms is might be called head space. At any rate the higher is has to move the liquid the slower it moves it, right?

rplace wrote:I think in pump terms is might be called head space. At any rate the higher is has to move the liquid the slower it moves it, right?

That's correct - and probably for the reason you listed is why you've never had a problem. If the pump head and supply hoses are already flushed with liquid, there's going to be no problem pushing the air out of the chiller. If you're starting with a dry pump I think it might be difficult to get it going without either a bleeder valve or having the chiller higher than the pump.

The only thing that really matters is that the pump is below the pot, it doesn't matter if the chiller is above or below the pump as long as the pump is set up to prime easily. I put my pump down low and pump up to the chiller.

I have both of my pumps set up with the in and out level with each other and I never have a problem with priming.

BEER, a mixture of malted grains, water, hops and yeast, that is transformed through the course of fermentation that transcends the simplicity of those basic ingredients, fundamentally into the drink of life. turbo_ale

turbo_ale wrote:Craig, what is the purpose to drain the wort into the kettle, then pumped out of kettle by the pump ?

To filter out the trub. When I pump straight from the kettle the pump sucks hop material out of the pot and gets clogged, when I let it run out by gravity I can control the flow better and most of it stays in the pot. Any material that does get out goes into the grant which is in a constant whirlpool so it all goes to the center and stays there.

Monster Mash wrote:To filter out the trub. When I pump straight from the kettle the pump sucks hop material out of the pot and gets clogged, when I let it run out by gravity I can control the flow better and most of it stays in the pot. Any material that does get out goes into the grant which is in a constant whirlpool so it all goes to the center and stays there.

How do you get it in a constant whirlpool? Just by the movement of how the liquid is coming in or do you utilize a modified stirplate of some sort?

BEER, a mixture of malted grains, water, hops and yeast, that is transformed through the course of fermentation that transcends the simplicity of those basic ingredients, fundamentally into the drink of life. turbo_ale